The Harris Family: November

I'm so glad our November didn't fly by like October. However, I'm glad I'm starting to take pictures and blog because I realized that I barely remember November or October or any of the other months. The months just start blending together.

This month was a lot more laid back. We did kick off the month with the girls going to Juliette Low's birthday celebration campfire with Girls Scouts. Juliette Low is the founder of Girl Scouts. They made s'mores, made cupcakes out of candles, ate cupcakes, made cards and birthday hats. The best part was that it wasn't too cold and the rain pretty much held off.

Kristen also got to go horseback riding and learn a lot about horses with Girl Scouts too. It was so educational. Not only did they get to ride a horse, they also got to see what it was like to take care of a horse. Brushing, feeding and mucking out the stalls. They learned the different parts of a horse and how to clean their hooves. The care, time and money that goes into taking care of these animals was astonishing. They are beautiful animals.

We also took a field trip to Blackstone to Bevell's Hardware to look at their Christmas holiday train display. This began over 30 years ago with two small trains on a 4 x 8 piece of plywood and is now an 18 x 56 train display with more than 10 trains and lots of scenery. We met Meme and Papaw there and then ate lunch at the Farmers Cafe. Kristen wasn't really excited about going to see a train. According to her, "Trains aren't my thing." But, she was excited about a day off from school. Afterwards she was happy and said it turned out better than she could imagine.

The highlight was the Disney display. The castle even had "fireworks" that went off behind the castle. They also had a really long Disney train with characters from most of the Disney movies, plus other movies that weren't Disney. They even had the California Raisins!

They had different eras of time depicted. The kids were particularly excited when they saw that the drive in movie really played a movie and it was Boss Baby.

They had a circus with an actual working rollercoaster.

One of my favorites was the burning building with actual smoke and water to put it out. So realistic with flashing lights and sounds.

The kids also got their picture taken with the creepy conductor.

We had a great Thanksgiving spent with family and friends. In school we made our thankful turkeys, did some fun Thanksgiving activities, learned about the first Thanksgiving feast, and talked about what it would be like to have a pet turkey.

Kristen would feed her pet turkey ice cream, turkey food, bacon and cookies. She would also take her turkey shopping. Lauren would feed her pet turkey strawberries, eggs, cookies and grass and would take her turkey to the park to swing. Dallas would feed his turkey a hamburger, chicken, ham, and sausage. He would eat, sleep and drink with his turkey.

Kristen did a Thanksgiving roll a story. She had to write about things she rolled. It had to be about an Indian boy or girl at sunset in the woods and someone was lost.

Here was her story:

Little Indian Princess

Once a long time ago there was a little Indian princess. Her name was Aiyana. Aiyana lived in the woods with her family and tribe. Aiyana had a friend. His name was Namito. Namito was a boy and was expected to hunt and make sure the tribe was safe. Aiyana was a girl and was expected to cook meals and make clothes. Aiyana liked being a girl, she just didn't want to stay inside and cook. Aiyana wanted to go out and explore. Aiyana asked her dad if she could explore, but Aiyana's dad said she had to stay and cook lunch. Aiyana was very sad when she walked out of her dad's teepee. When Aiyana was at the place where she cooked she heard someone call for help. Aiyana ran into the woods even though her dad said she couldn't. Aiyana kept running and then she saw Namito in one of his traps. Aiyana asked Namito what happened. Namito said he was setting the trap when his foot got caught. Aiyana took Namito back home. Aiyana told her dad what happened. Aiyana's dad said she was a hero and could go into the woods.

Kristen loves to write. In fact, she wants to be an author when she grows up.

Thanksgiving is the kickoff to the start of all of our Christmas traditions, like decorating the tree and opening our first Christmas movie. Last year I started wrapping some Christmas movies. One for each weekend leading up to Christmas. The kids take turns picking one out and unwrapping it. Our first movie was The Santa Claus.

Eric, our elf on a shelf made his appearance and started his mischievousness this month. When we went to see the train, Eric appeared riding on our Dallas Cowboy Christmas train.

He's also decorated our eggs.

The kids also went and had their annual picture taken with Santa Claus.

Dallas ended up being sick for a few days this month. I thought it was the start of the croup, but I think it was a cold. He did run a fever and had a bad cough. But...he still did school even though I told him repeatedly that he didn't have to. He loves doing school and said it made him feel better. He had fallen asleep like this in this picture. For him to take a nap means he must be feeling bad.

One of the reasons we went to see the train was because Dallas was learning and writing about trains in his Writeshop. Here is one of his writings about trains.

And his published work.

He also made a sponge train.

Kristen read us a book about trains and we all, including me, learned how to draw a train.

Dallas also got his very own library card. He was as excited as I was. I usually check out all of the books we need for the month at one time. This is a lot of books and I put most of them on hold to pick up. I really do need 4 library cards to accomplish this and for the kids and I to be able to check out our weekly book choices and dvd's. At least the library ladies know us now and I don't feel the need to explain why I am checking out three tote bags full of books and all of us are carrying a load of books in our arms as well. What can I say...we love free books.

This month we started reading The BFG by Roald Dahl. We have been enjoying his books.

Since starting school we have read James and the Giant Peach and Matilda. I'm trying to read books that have movies that go with them. It's fun to discuss the similarities and differences with the kids and starting our school day reading together. We are looking forward to watching The BFG.

This month our theme, per say, was art. We learned about a different artist each week and did our own versions of some famous paintings.

We also did some very easy origami. The kids made book markers, cats and hearts. Our book markers needed to be a little smaller in order to be functional. Origami is harder than you would think.

At the beginning of November, Dallas was finishing up his Writeshop unit on colors. We read some great books and also decided to make new heart shaped crayons out of our broken crayons,